The Mar’25 Brent futures contract initially saw strength this afternoon, steadily climbing to $79.60/bbl around 1515 GMT, however, prices sold-off shortly after 1610 GMT down to $78.10/bbl at 1640 GMT, retracing to $78.65/bbl at 1735 GMT (time of writing). Crude oil prices faced bearish sentiment after US President Trump urged OPEC to lower oil prices and reiterated his tariff threats, as per Bloomberg. Trump also pledged to ensure Europe’s energy security while asserting that the US no longer needed Canadian oil and gas. Meanwhile, EIA data released today at 1700 GMT for the week to 17 Jan showed that US crude oil inventories fell by 1.02mb. In the news today, Donald Trump’s tariff threats aimed at strongarming Russia into ending the war in Ukraine have been badly received by some Russian politicians, with Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin adviser, stating Trump’s actions suggested he would not be able to bring peace to Ukraine, according to Reuters. In other news, a large part of Russia’s oil tanker fleet is being forced to change the flag they sail under after pressure from US and UK sanctions, as per Bloomberg. The Barbados ship registry said that by the end of January it will have asked 46 ships to remove the country’s flag as a result of the sanctions, while Panama’s ship registry said earlier this month it had begun to de-list 68 US-sanctioned vessels. In macroeconomic news, US jobless claims data released at 1330 GMT today edged higher to 223k, compared to a forecast of 221k. At the time of writing, the Mar/Apr’25 and Mar/Sep’25 Brent futures spreads stand at $0.78/bbl and $3.69/bbl, respectively.
